Wednesday, July 25, 2012

RETHINKING LA - My wife Enci and I have marched in the streets, we’ve
turned out with signs and picketed, we've Stormed the Bastille, ridden
Critical Mass, and filibustered public meetings from the public
speaker’s podium. We’ve gone to Sacramento, we’ve spoken Truth to Power,
and along the way we’ve sat-in, stood-up and even laid-down in a
die-in.

But this weekend was a first for us. We joined dozens of
nursing moms and their families at a local restaurant for a Nurse-In,
all in response to a recent incident when a nursing mom was asked to
feed her child in the bathroom.
The original incident and the resulting Nurse-In both took place at
Scarantino’s, a small family-owned and operated restaurant with a 45
year legacy that includes this mission statement; “We want our service
to be such that every customer feels as welcomed guests in our home.”

A
woman joined her family for a celebratory dinner and began nursing her
child at the table. Another guest complained and an employee of the
restaurant asked the nursing mom to leave the dining room for the more
intimate bathroom.

Personally, I’ve never asked a guest in my
home to eat in the bathroom and I can’t imagine how a nursing mom would
consider herself a welcomed guest when banished from the dining room.

But of course, my opinion is simply my opinion.

More
importantly, it’s the law and nursing moms have California Civil Code,
Section 43.3, on their side. "Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, a mother may breastfeed her child in any location, public or
private, except the private home or residence of another, where the
mother and the child are otherwise authorized to be present."

It
takes two kinds of ignorance to ban a nursing mom from a public place.
The first is simple ignorance of the law. The second is a far deeper
form of ignorance, one that stigmatizes a natural and healthy practice
that has been around a lot longer than the hang-ups that might motivate
someone to complain when they see a mother nurse a child.

Nursing
moms have been in the news a great deal of late, typically involved in
incidents where an employee or security guard seizes that rare moment of
power where they get to say “No! Put that Boob away!”

Denny’s
was the subject of Nurse-Ins over the weekend, all in response to a mom
who dared to nurse her child at the table with the rest of the family.
LACMA recently incurred the wrath of LA’s increasingly larger community
of nursing moms when a security guard asked a nursing mom to get a
shroud or leave the public place.

Time magazine took on the
subject and took the provocative route less traveled when it posted a
nursing mom on the cover along with her three-year old son.

The
decision to nurse a child is a huge commitment that includes positioning
a growing child’s nutritional needs as the driving force that
determines schedules and nursing activity.

Nursing moms
experience a formula-centric environment that views the lactating breast
as an affront to all that is perfect about our upside-down prioritized
culture.

When Enci and I made our first visit to the
Pediatrician, we were given a lovely gift bag that turned out to be
filled with formula and formula accessories. Liquid formula, powdered
formula, small bottles, flat bottles, large bottles, bottle warmers,
bottle coolers, bottle insulators, and it all matched.

Missing
from this generous bag of support was a list of foods that encourage a
lactating mom and a list of foods that interfere with lactation.

It
wasn’t until we did our own research that we discovered that Enci
should be eating more oats, ginger, avocado, dates, and coconut milk. We
navigated the course on our own as we uncovered all of the
“anti-plactagogues” that are common in our diet, including parsley,
peppermint, spearmint, and sage.

Imagine that! So many foods that interfere with lactation and not a word from our corporate sponsored Pediatrician.

As for Scarantino’s, the Nurse-In took place on the sidewalk and in the restaurant.

The
sidewalk was covered with playmats and families made themselves at home
with children, toys, and nursing moms and happy babies. On such a busy
street, the sidewalk took on a festive mood not typical of protest
actions. There were protest signs and the mom who suffered the original
insult was there, refusing to spend another dime at Scarantino’s until
she received an apology.

Inside the busy restaurant, the tables were full, and nursing moms were the dominant force in the noisy dining room.

Three
elderly guests who arrived in the middle of the Nurse-In sat down next
to us with a grumble, advising the manager that perhaps it was time to
call the police on those who blocked the sidewalk. They quickly dropped
the subject when it came time to order and proceeded to grill the waiter
on the ingredients of dishes, explaining that they all had very
specific dietary restrictions.

I couldn’t help but wonder how
long it will be before waiters are as sensitive to the diet of lactating
moms as they are to the dietary restrictions of seniors, but that is
for another day.

Baby Sydney charmed our geriatric neighbors and
we enjoyed a very delightful and delicious dinner, complemented by
excellent service, and not an eyebrow was raised as nursing children
throughout the dining room enjoyed their meals along with their families
and strangers alike.

To quote a mom, “It was a delicious protest!”

It was also much more. It was successful.

The
manager involved in the initial incident admitted that he didn’t know
the law and acknowledged that he broke the law. He added that he didn’t
want litigation. He stepped outside and approached the mom who was
originally asked to use the bathroom when nursing her child and he
apologized, getting a hug in return and earning a great deal of respect
from those who watched him swallow his pride and treat the moms as if
they were welcomed guests in his home.

Enci enjoyed the community
of nursing moms and found the protest to be an uplifting and positive
experience. Sydney made some new friends and left his first protest
happy and well-fed. As for me, I was thrilled to participate in civil
disobedience that revolved around a dining table, one that was loaded
with such a delicious Italian meal.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

NEIGHBORHOODS LA - California’s financial woes resulted in a state
budget that failed to fund the Brown Act mandate that specifies 72 hour
posting of agendas, resulting in a statute that lacks enforcement teeth.
This passive suspension of the Brown Act posting requirement has caused
many to wonder if the City Council and the Neighborhood Councils were
now permitted to conduct the people’s business without notifying the
public.
The answer is “No.”

LA’s City Council is bound by many levels of authority, from Federal to State to local, and when all else fails, it is their own rules that specify:
Rule #76 - The Agenda for each regular meeting of a Council Committee
shall be posted at least 72 hours before the meeting. It shall contain a
brief general description of each item of business to be transacted or
discussed at the meeting. (This rule can’t be suspended by the City
Council)

LA’s Neighborhood Councils are also bound by many levels
of authority and when all else falls short or fails to address an
issue, it is the bylaws that govern the actions of the Council.

This
past Friday, a Neighborhood Council President magnanimously declared
that in spite of California’s suspension of the Brown Act requirement to
post agendas 72 hours in advance of a meeting, the Council would
continue to honor the Brown Act provisions out of a commitment “to
serving our stakeholders in a transparent, open and inclusive manner.”

The
press release failed to note that the Council’s bylaws require the
Council to exceed the Brown Act’s requirements for posting agendas,
demonstrating that the Brown Act is just one of many layers of authority
that govern the actions of Neighborhood Councils.

California’s
Brown act amounted to just 686 words when it was introduced to the
California Legislature by Ralph M. Brown in 1953. Since then it has
grown significantly and along the way, California passed 2004’s Prop 1A,
known as Protection of Local Government Revenues, which required the
State of California to pay the cost of all mandated requirements at the
local level “or suspend their operation.”

Before Brown Act foes
jump too high with joy, 2004 also saw the passage of Prop 59 which
requires “right of access to information” with regard to government
actions.

The brouhaha over the Brown Act and the actions of some
local agencies that sent invoices to the State of California for actions
that they would have already taken, specifically preparing agendas and
then posting them, is simply a tempest in a teapot.

It has been said that “"Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.”

In
the case of LA’s City Council and Neighborhood Councils, our collective
character is revealed by the fact that the debate is typically over
what is the legal minimum rather than what is the maximum possible.

“The
good news is that the worst of the anxieties result from a hugely
exaggerated understanding of what has happened and what the result might
be. The bad news is that the path to a permanent end to such crises is
vulnerable to the same species of dubious economy trigger that caused
the crises in the first place. And an Assembly committee is using that
trigger to make sure that the public gets no chance to end such
situations.”

Francke points out that this isn’t the first time
that an unfunded mandate resulted in the suspension of enforcement
activity, but that the entire scenario has a solution that only requires
the actions of some of LA’s local Assembly members, including
Blumenfield, Gatto, Fuentes, Davis, Hall, Mitchell, and Pérez.

The
current dialogue on the Brown Act has turned out to be a character
revealing exercise for the City Council and the neighborhood Councils,
and most importantly, for the California Assembly members who have a
simple solution in their hands, one that would result in a simple
constitutional requirement: “Each public body shall provide public
notice of its meetings and shall publicly disclose any action taken.”

HOW LA’S DOWNTOWN ARTWALK BECAME A CRIME SCENE - When Lance Armstrong
came to Los Angeles for a bike ride with 700 of his closest friends, the
streets ran yellow with chalked messages of hope and encouragement.
Mayor Villaraigosa and then City Council President Eric Garcetti stood
in the middle of a heavily chalked Sunset Boulevard to welcome Lance to
Hollywood and then the LAPD arrived, not to arrest the chalkers, but to
escort the cyclists down Sunset and up Vine to the Ricardo Montalban
Theatre.

Waiting inside were Ben Stiller, Ben Harper, Shepard Fairey,
LiveStrong CEO Doug Ulman and Nike CEO Mark Parker. It was a night that
celebrated the power of Art, Culture, and Sports in changing the world.

For
the hundreds of people who couldn’t get inside the Theatre for the
program, the streets were their canvas and they spent the evening
leaving their mark with yellow chalk provided by LiveStrong.

The
LAPD never objected. In fact their supportive presence lent an air of
legitimacy to the activity, after all, it was just chalk.

About a
month later, Jesus Castillo was riding his bike home from work when he
was run down from behind by a drunk driver who pinned him against a
parked car, backed up, and then drove away leaving Jesus to die on
Glendale Boulevard in Echo Park.

Cyclists descended on the scene
with a Ghost Bike and boxes of chalk, memorializing the tragic incident
with a die-in ceremony and with chalked messages that filled Glendale
Boulevard.

The LAPD were there in force, standing by as the press covered the event, under the watchful eye of Eric Garcetti’s Deputy.

The streets were yellow, the LAPD were mellow, and eventually everyone rode off into the night.

Chalking
the streets is one of the most non-invasive mechanisms of communication
available to the masses, it’s quiet, cheap, temporary, and it’s
actually quite fun.

Doubters only have to look at events such as
Park(ing)Day LA, ArtCycle, and the Olive Festival where children are
thrilled to fill the streets with chalked artwork and adults marvel at
the skills of the internationally recognized chalk artists who come from
around the world to ply their trade, street chalking.

It’s against this backdrop that the LAPD’s actions of last week must be examined.

According
to reports, OccupyLA protesters took up arms, in this case pastel chalk
wrapped in paper with notes explaining their position, and the seeds of
discontent were sown on the streets of Los Angeles during Downtown LA’s
monthly Art Walk.

The LAPD responded, there was an acceleration
of tension, a tactical alert was called, and the LAPD arrived from all
over the city armed with less-than-lethal weapons which they unleashed
on the crowd.

The LAPD Commander on the scene gave the command
and LAPD officers fired rubber bullets, bean bags, and tear gas at the
Art Walk crowd, many of whom claim they were caught in the midst of an
action that came with no warning and no opportunity to evacuate.

As
the debate over how a non-violent pastel chalk protest turned into a
violent melee continues, a petition is circulating calling for an
investigation into the LAPD’s heavy-handed handling of the incident.

At
the heart of the matter is this simple question. How did the LAPD allow
itself to be so easily goaded into less-than-lethal violence in the
middle of a crowded public event?

When participants in an
advertised Chalk Walk during a crowded Art Walk can so easily draw a
violent response from the LAPD, it’s time to evaluate the performance of
the professional peace officers responsible for the largest city in the
most populated state in the most powerful country in the world.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

RETHINKING LA - Neighborhood Councils learn much from watching LA’s City
Council in action, some of it good, some of it bad, and some of it
illegal.
For example, when the City Council doesn’t have a quorum of members
present, it can’t start the meeting, setting up a charming situation
where the City Council President twiddles his thumbs while the public
grows restless. It has become tradition, in the City Council and
subsequently in Neighborhood Councils, to fill this non-meeting time
with announcements and public comment.

There are a few problems with this scenario.

The
first is that the professionals who run the largest city in the most
populated state in the most powerful country in the world can’t show up
on time, leaving the public to watch as the City Council President send
assistants to call Councilmembers, urging them to get to Council
Chambers so that the City Council can convene the meeting.

There’s
no greater insult to the public than to run the meetings with a
stopwatch as a tool for controlling the public but as the same time
forgive tardiness from the members. It’s an unacceptable
double-standard.

The second is that the presiding officer has a
charming habit of filling that non-quorum dead-air with announcements,
public comment, and other “noise.” This may fill the dead air, but it
also sends a clear message to those who have shown up to participate in
the people’s business that their public comment won’t even make it to
the traditional deaf ears, it will simply be directed at empty seats.

The
third problem is that the City Council considers the “noise” that takes
place as they scramble for a quorum as sufficient public comment to
satisfy their Brown Act requirement to provide the public the
opportunity to address the body during the meeting for public comment.
It doesn’t.

This is where Neighborhood Councils find themselves imitating the City Council and then breaking the law.

The
City Council and the Neighborhood Councils alike are required to
agendize their meetings with four minimum elements that include public
comment on items not on the agenda.

It’s not optional or
suggested it’s required. When the Council finally reaches quorum is when
the public gets its opportunity to speak, even if they’ve spoken before
the meeting started.

If the Council finds itself pressed for
time, that’s a limitation that is the responsibility of the Council, not
the public and it is not justification for the Council to dispense with
their mandate to provide the public with the opportunity to address the
Council with public comment.

As for that “dead-air” time that
takes place as the Council waits for a quorum, one way to deal with it
would be to spend that time searching for members of the public who
would like to occupy those empty seats. That would be a much better use
of time, it would address the cavalier behavior of the non-quorum
councils, and it would motivate tardy members to show up on time.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS - Jim Newton’s recent editorial in the LA Times
paid tribute to a decade of Neighborhood Council struggle and stirred
two responses from those embroiled in LA’s civic engagement battle.

Some
folks were tickled to find LA’s Neighborhood Council system given a nod
by Newton, a longtime observer of LA’s Charter reform movement and LA’s
grassroots efforts to activate its “95 neighborhoods in search of a
city.”
Others were quick to criticize Newton, exclaiming “A column on NCs and
no perspective from any one on an NC? Really?”

There are a couple
of kinds of complaints that are common when it comes to coverage from
the local press, “How come we can’t get any press?” and “You call that
good coverage?”

When Newton takes a look at Neighborhood Councils
and the last decade of civic engagement, he opines “they have yet to
prove either as revolutionary as their backers hoped or as
obstructionist as their opponents feared.”

He might have added that Neighborhood Councils are simply not good press.

One
critic of Newton’s editorial takes him to task saying “To be blunt, I
understand that rolodex reporting, strawmen conflicts, and he said/she
said commentary is part and parcel of daily journalism; it is also why
paid circulation of dailies has crashed.”

I would contend that if
Neighborhood Councils want better press, they need to be better press
and here are three ways to make that happen.

First, be available.
A journalist with a deadline is hard pressed to quote Neighborhood
Council leaders if they don’t take phone calls. Granted, there are
typically email contacts on each Neighborhood Council website but print
media works a little faster and anyone with a story to tell has a
spokesperson who will take calls and forward information.

Neighborhood Councils that want great press need to be available.

Second,
be quotable. Journalists, even the “he said/she said” variety, simply
need quotes that want to be read. Neighborhood Commissioner Douglas
Epperhart has been quoted more than a few times on many topics and he
attributes it to his ability to speak in full sentences that include an
interesting word. “It was great!” is not a newsworthy but “They were
feisty and opinionated!” will turn up in print.

Neighborhood Councils that want great press need to be quotable.

Finally,
be good press. Journalists love great stories, ones that feature a
hero, a struggle, the risk of failure, and an against-all-odds outcome.
If Neighborhood Councils want great press, they have to be great press.
Be the story, tell the story, and cultivate a relationship with local
journalists so that they call you when they are digging for information,
when they need a quote, and when they are in search of the next big
story.

In other words, some stories write themselves and if
Neighborhood Councils want to get credit for their hard work, it is
imperative that they become great press instead of simply standing by
and wondering why they get left out.

Saturday, July 07, 2012

RETHINKING LA’S NC’S - If a group of Neighborhood Council leaders got
together at the local library to discuss public business without
inviting the public, it would constitute a violation of the Brown Act
but it would hardly be grounds for closing the library. After all, the
library wasn’t party to the crime, it was merely the scene of the crime.

The more appropriate action would be to address the people who
engaged in the public’s business without posting agendas, inviting the
public and adhering to the requirements of California’s Open Meeting
law.

Imagine the same group of Neighborhood Council leaders
getting together to celebrate Independence Day at a community BBQ where
the conversation drifts into a discussion of business on the agenda for
their upcoming Board meeting.

The actions of the community
leaders would constitute a violation of the Brown Act but it would
hardly justify a ban on BBQs or Independence Day parties. Again, the
celebration wasn’t a party to the crime, it was just the reason for the
gathering at which the crime was committed.

In both cases the
Brown Act violations should be addressed by focusing on the people who
are engaged in the illegal behavior, not on the library or BBQ where the
acts took place.

When it comes to physical places, this seems
like common sense, yet when the conversation shifts to the digital
arena, common sense is not so common.

When Neighborhood Council
leaders engage in digital violations of the Brown Act by participating
in a Yahoo Group or a Google Group where they discuss Board business, it
is not Yahoo or Google that is responsible for the crime, it is the
participants.

And yet, Neighborhood Councils find themselves
closing Yahoo Groups and Google Groups for fear that an illegal act will
break out on their digital property, a fearful response that is the
equivalent of closing libraries and banning celebrations to stop bad
behavior.

Terry Francke of CalAware writes “The only concern of
the Brown Act is that physical congregations or digital linkups, online
or otherwise, not be used to build majority consensus about something
the members should be reserving to meetings.”

Some of the best
tools for engaging the public are in the digital arena but ignorance of
the Brown Act and fear of violating the law have immobilized
Neighborhood Council leaders to the point of absurdity, immobilizing
outreach efforts in debates that are reminiscent of Morse Code vs
Semaphore debates.

It’s not the tools that turn actions or
inactions into Brown Act violations, it is the process of engaging in
the people’s business without including the public. It’s that simple.

Francke
points out that “Small rural school and special district boards all
over the state, with not much if any more resources than a Neighborhood
Council find they can get business done without violating the law. I
think it's a matter of adequate training and coaching by those who know
about the Brown Act and care about the viability of NCs.”

Neighborhood
Councils are engaged in an uphill battle to engage the public and now,
more than ever, it is imperative that all the tools are available for
communicating and publicizing agendas, meetings, and opportunities to
get involved.

From word-of-mouth to flyers to online forums to
social media, Neighborhood Councils need to employ the full quiver of
communication tools if they are to fulfill their city charter mandate to
“To promote more citizen participation in government and make
government more responsive to local needs.”

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

RETHINKING LA - Jim Newton, Editor at Large of the LA Times, contends
that Neighborhood Councils “have yet to prove either as revolutionary as
their backers hoped or as obstructionist as their opponents feared.”

Newton’s editorial offers his perspective as a journalistwho
covered the Charter Reform Commission during the days when Neighborhood
Councils were in equal parts - City Hall threat and grassroots
appeasement.
Since those days of promise, Neighborhood Councils have struggled for
their identity, for their survival, and for their relevance.

City
Hall and the media seem to have a common approach to judging the
success of Neighborhood Councils, one that has existed since the
beginning and is based on the impact of their advisory role.

This
focus on the original purpose of Neighborhood Councils has interfered
with an appraisal of Neighborhood Councils based on an unintended
outcome, one with greater ramifications and potential impact than the
Charter Commission anticipated or predicted.

LA’s municipal
elections are scheduled for March 5, 2013 and the field is flush with
Neighborhood Council veterans, people who cut their political teeth
fighting in the local trenches.

Cary Brazeman of Mid City West
Community Council and Ron Galperin of Bel Air Beverly Crest Neighborhood
Council are vying for the City Controller’s office, both armed with
experience they picked up as local advocates fighting to engage their
community and hold government accountable.

Boyle Heights
Neighborhood Council has fielded two candidates for City Council with
William Morrison running for CD1 and Manuel Aldana Jr. running for CD9.

The
West Valley’s Council District 3 is well represented by candidates that
mastered the City Hall ropes in their roles as Neighborhood Council
Presidents. Cary Iaccino, Chairman of the Reseda Neighborhood Council,
and Joyce Pearson, former President of the Woodland Hills Warner Center
Neighborhood Council, both reached a point where they claim that the
only option was to run for office.

Council District 13, Mayoral
Candidate Eric Garcetti’s home for the last 12 years, is a hotbed of
Neighborhood Council candidates, running in the most crowded field of
the eight City Council seats up for election.

Jose Sigala,
President of Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council, Scott
Crawford of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, Rueben Martinez of the
Atwater Village Neighborhood Council, and Sam Kbyshyan of the East
Hollywood Neighborhood Council are all running in a clear demonstration
that the Neighborhood Councils have gone beyond the original mandate.

Adding
gravitas to the CD13 race is performance of Alexander Cruz De Ocampo of
Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council who was the first to raise
$50,000 and the appearance of BongHwan “BH” Kim, General Manager of the
Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, in the race.

Neighborhood
Councils may still struggle with the Brown Act, with agendas, and with
Community Impact Statements, but perhaps that floundering activity has
had a refining impact on the participants, honing the rough edges and
preparing them for City Hall and the opportunity to put their local
sensitivities to work on larger issues that median strip cleanups and
budget recommendations.

City Hall insiders have long learned that
courting Neighborhood Councils is essential to moving forward and now
that election season is underway, it’s hard not to find Assembly,
Senate, Mayoral and Council candidates on the Neighborhood Council
trail, swearing their allegiance to local leadership and promising
eternal connectivity and access.

The crowded Mayoral race
includes perennial candidate YJ Draiman of the Northridge East
Neighborhood Council and Kevin James who spent years partnering with
Neighborhood Councils on issues such as Measure B and Budget LA and
giving them a voice on his radio show.

As the critics ponder the
future of Neighborhood Councils and contemplate their relevance, the
fact that they have given birth to so many candidates for municipal
office that bears witness to their true potential and capacity for
shaping the dialogue and bringing the neighborhoods to City Hall.